Notified About

A Message to the Community:
In mid-February, Supervalu Inc. announced that it was pulling all Shaw's supermarkets out of CT. Immediately upon hearing the news, the Greater Dwight Community Investment Corporation and its partners began examining options and seeking a replacement. No one is willing to accept a "food desert" in this neighborhood, and GDCIC is working initially with Yale University Properties, which has both extensive experience in supermarket real estate and a strong desire to avert this possibility.

It is of critical importance that the community remains engaged on this issue. Attached to this sheet we have included a brief survey, the data from which may be valuable in assisting the GDCIC and its partners secure a new, full-service supermarket for the Dwight location. In addition to distributing the survey, here are things you can do to help:

1. Once Shaw's goes dark at the end of March, help us ensure that the Plaza remains a safe place. Visit the site often and shop at the other stores in the center to that it remains a financially healthy community asset. Also, consider creating a formal block watch.

2. Collect the names and signatures of people committed to having a full-service supermarket in central New Haven, and have them complete the survey attached.

3. Make it known in conversations with friends, elected officials, and inquiring journalists that the community deserves a full-service supermarket in this space. If you have a moment, submit a comment to Supervalu, the owners of Shaw's, at http://www.supervalu.com/sv-webapp/contact/contact.jsp. Let them know how important it is to the community that they assist us in obtaining a full-service replacement store (please keep the messages civil, as we continue to work with Supervalu to reach a mutually-acceptable resolution).

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT. WE ARE COMMITTED TO KEEPING THE COMMUNITY INFORMED AS THIS PROCESS UNFOLDS. WE WOULD APPRECIATE ANY ADDITIONAL SUGGESTIONS YOU MAY HAVE.

What can we do as neighbors? We can go door to door and bring this survey to your neighbors! Instructions for returning the survey are on the bottom of the page: http://tinyurl.com/newhavengrocer

Shaw's is closing all CT stores but has not found a buyer for the Whalley Ave. location. The New Haven region could really benefit from the opening of a year-round market inside and around the Shaw's shopping center (there is an enormous, underutilized parking lot there also). I'm not sure about the zoning so I'm hoping someone could check on that.

The market could potentially provide year-round access to fresh produce and crafts, it could serve the city as a public space, and simultaneously help to sustain the local economy in these uncertain times.

Bike rack at Stop and Shop is almost completely unusable. It is not a standard rack. As a result cyclists are forced to shop elsewhere, or to lock up to things like railings and shopping carts to keep their bikes safe.

A lime green dirt bike has resurfaced this afternoon following a period of relative peace in the neighborhood. At one point the rider (see attached photo) abandoned the street for the sidewalk without any apparent reduction in speed which I'd estimate at 40 mph. I hope the photo helps.

The amount of speeding and red light running at this intersection is obscene.

Cars are speeding past at rush hour more than 20 MPH above the limit, amidst crowds of pedestrians and other vehicles. The red light signal is not obeyed.

It is only a matter of time before a driver loses control and kills or injures several people, as has happened recently at similar intersections (like Crown & College). The very poor pedestrian visibility at the corners, inadequate lighting, and use of line crosswalks rather than the more effective zebra-style crosswalks, only makes matters worse.

Can some police enforcement be added here as a temporary fix, up until the time that the intersection can be rebuilt to a higher standard? Is it even possible to stop red light runners here?

Ultimately, the intersection should be redesigned, like many in other US cities have been, so that travel at more than 15 miles per hour becomes uncommon. I've posted details on similar issues in New Haven about how raised and tabled intersections have been widely used in cities like Boulder, Cambridge Massachusetts, etc.. They have been proven to be extremely effective - not to mention much more cost-efficient than regular police enforcement.

Given that this is in the heart of campus, if Yale University is serious about making sure that students, staff and faculty are not continuing to get injured and killed every year, it should consider pushing the city for a redesign as soon as possible.

The dumpster that Mandy Management has provided for the apartment building at the corner of Edgewood and Sherman is far too small for the number of units in the building. As a result, trash is often overflowing, and ends up littering the block.

A larger dumpster (or a second dumpster, or more frequent emptying of the dumpster) needs to be provided.

This place is an eyesore. Wood piled up all over the parking lot, with garbage mixed in and spilling into the street. This has to be a haven for infestation of rodents. They have a fenced in lot behind them, but never use it. A disgusting corner for years, and a hazard for pedestrians.

Hi, I am writing to ask the police officer assigned to the new Stop & Shop on Whalley Avenue if he would spend some time at the south end of the plaza as well, near the laundromat.

Today, July 3, in the afternoon, round 3 or 4 pm, a woman helped a young boy pee on the sidewalk on Elm St, on that side of the shopping plaza.

There is a bathroom in Stop & Shop, not sure of the laundromat.

If it had been so, so urgent that there was not time to make it to the bathroom, this woman could at least have protected this little boy's dignity a little by finding a more discreet location.

It was flagrant, peeing in a big arc so that if you were had bicycled by on Elm you probably would have caught some on your shoe.

I was walking and couldn't go by on the sidewalk at all because of it.

The way this woman did this , I figured that it wasn't an ER, that she would have done it only because the bathroom was too much trouble to walk to, or because she thinks boys shouldn't have to use bathrooms at all.

it was really disgusting and I would appreciate it if the PD, who are always in Stop & Shop, and their security too, could make their presence known a lot on this end of the plaza too. the laundromat there attracts some bad behavior. Thanks.

every time i ride my bike home from downtown, i'm offered crack, and usually also solicited for sex from crackhead women. i've been offered crack as early as 11am on a weekday. children are present and police just a few blocks away

There is a big dumpster behind this house with trash spilling out of it. Someone comes from other locations and adds to the trash. We think the owner of the house might own other properties and is consolidating refuse here. Dumpsters appear on a regular basis here. The trash is overflowing, looks terrible, is dangerous to local kids who might be tempted to explore, and we don't know what other problems all this trash can cause. We also wonder if this is a violation of regulations. We live here and hate to see the neighborhood looking like this.

Manhole cover in the middle of the street is improperly installed. The cover makes a very loud noise every time a vehicle drives over it, and it is impossible to sleep at night. Problem started only a couple of days ago. Please fix!!!